HRDC considers labour export
Lebogang Baingapi | Tuesday May 30, 2017 16:10
The HRDC Chief Executive Officer, Dr Raphel Dingalo assured Jwaneng councillors during a full council meeting last week that they are looking into innovative ways of improving the human capital and carrying on their mandate of advising the government on employment and training measures.
Dingalo said they are not worried about the quality of Botswana graduates and further highlighted that they have potential of penetrating the global market. He said HRDC’s role is to coordinate and promote implementation as well as provide policy advice in all matters.
“We are tasked to promote workplace learning and skills development. We are confident that people trained in Botswana can fit in the international market,“ Dingalo said.
Jwaneng deputy mayor, Olga Ditsie called on HRDC to hasten export of qualified labour to other countries to reduce unemployment in the country. She said Botswana enjoys cordial relations with many countries and that the human resource council should take advantage of such and advise the government accordingly.
Councillor of Ngami ward, Bankinyana Montsiemang was also of the view that the state of the economy cannot absorb all graduates and he noted that the HRDC should be seen as a driving body of accelerating the employment drive. He advised that the council should take their services to the people and teach the community about their mandate.
“Small Micro Medium Enterprises have their hands tied because training and reimbursement is not easy. The HRDC should also facilitate and see to it that special collaborations between big companies and small businesses are established,” a representative from Jwaneng Chamber of Commerce Julius Sebako said.
Sebako also highlighted that Jwaneng businesses have come together to solicit one voice in order to advocate for their welfare.
He said there is serious rural-urban migration of people to Jwaneng, especially small business owners who should be considered for any development in the economy.
Dingalo admitted that the SADC regional integration framework also suggests that they should look into innovative ways of improving human capital in all sectors of the economy.
He said they will continue to engage all sectors and he, however, noted that it is the responsibility of those sectors to ensure that Batswana are given priority in employment over foreigners.